An expert in health policy and clinical evaluative research, Dr. Gelijns' cutting-edge research has provided critical insight into the forces that drive the rate and direction of technological change in medicine that promises to improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs.

As Chair of the Department of Population Health Science and Policy and Co-Director of the International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research (InCHOIR) at Mount Sinai, Dr. Gelijns' research focuses on clinical trials; comparative effectiveness research; and the factors shaping the development and diffusion of medical technology, and their policy implications. She has written extensively about the uncertainty involved in medical research, the roles of the public and private sectors in technological change, and the dynamics of pharmacological, device and surgical innovation. She has been appointed a fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Her more recent work has focused on the design, execution and policy implications of clinical trials of novel surgical procedures, biologicals (including stem cell therapies), drugs and implantable devices. She directed the data coordinating center (DCC) for the landmark REMATCH trial, which established for the first time the survival and quality of life benefit of implanted mechanical circulatory support devices for long-term support of patients with advanced heart failure. She, in collaboration with her InCHOIR collaborators, have extended this work through designing and coordinating a host of ongoing trials exploring the human biology of long-term mechanical circulatory support, supported by a NIH-funded SCCOR grant. She is currently part of the DCC leadership team for the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network, which is funded by NHLBI, NINDS and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Throughout her career Dr. Gelijns has built an international reputation as a leader in her field. From 1983 to 1987, she worked for the Steering Committee on Future Health Scenarios (co-sponsored by the European office of the World Health Organization and the Dutch government), where she helped develop models for long-term health planning in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular disease and aging. During that time, she also held a joint appointment to the Staff Bureau for Health Policy Development in the Netherlands' Department of Health and the Dutch Health Council. She later directed the Program on Technological Innovation in Medicine at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences before joining the faculty of Columbia University in 1993.

Additionally, Dr. Gelijns has served as a consultant to various national and international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris, France, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, and she was a member of the board of the International Society on Technology Assessment in Health Care. She has also authored or co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, editorials and reviews.

Her contributions have been acknowledged with numerous awards, including the Querido-Award from the Netherlands' National Foundation for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for the most promising young investigator in public health, the Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and an International Fellowship from the Council on Health Care Technology at the Institute of Medicine.

Dr. Gelijns received her LLM degree from the University of Leyden in the Netherlands and her PhD from the medical faculty at the University of Amsterdam. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Gelijns was Co-Director of the International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research, Division Chief in the Department of Surgery, and Professor of Public Health and Surgical Sciences in the Department of Surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Division of Health Policy and Management of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City.